Amazon ties up Seinfeld globally

Amazon has acquired the streaming rights to evergreen US comedy Seinfeld around the world, excluding North America and China.

C21 reported last week that Amazon had acquired exclusive rights to all 180 episodes of the sitcom in the UK.

A spokeswoman for Amazon has now confirmed the exclusive deal covers Asia, South America and most of EMEA following an agreement with distributor Sony Pictures Television (SPT).

Amazon also has non-exclusive streaming rights to the show in Israel, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Australia and New Zealand.

The series, which ran for nine seasons on NBC from 1989 to 1998, is one of the most sought after by on-demand services due to its enduring popularity.

US streamer Hulu agreed a deal for the series with SPT in 2015 that was worth US$130m, equating to more than US$700,000 per episode.

Seinfeld was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, with the latter starring as a fictionalised version of himself living in New York. It also starred Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards.

Amazon rolled out its Prime Video subscription service around the world last month, putting it in direct competition with streaming rival Netflix globally.

In related news, Amazon Prime Video has picked up the exclusive streaming rights to existing and future episodes of children’s series Oggy & the Cockroaches in India.

The deal with French firm Xilam Animation also covers the series Zig & Sharko, Floopaloo Where Are You, A Kind of Magic, If I Were An Animal, Paprika and The Daltons.